Snow Patrol: Fallen Empires

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This album has good moments buried under its formulaic power ballads and lachrymose lines about love conquering all

I’ll Never Let Go, the first song from Snow Patrol’s sixth,
reputedly experimental, album hints at something special. With a repeated
guitar melody, a building electronic warble and the insistent cries of Gary
Lightbody, it seems powerful, even meaningful. When the gospel chorus kicks
in, we’re in the realm of sanctified rock’n’roll soul. Could the
Irish-Scottish band so cruelly written off as the poor man’s Coldplay have
upped their game?

Unfortunately not. I’ll Never Let Go is a good song, but it uses
tricks that, over an entire album, make themselves obvious — and irritating.
Humdrum lines are repeated until they